Rain and ruins far from Roma

Sorry my posts have been so few and far between, we had a three day group orientation trip this past weekend and we've been really busy, but hopefully things will settle down now since orientation activities are over. Unfortunately it rained basically all weekend, but we still got to see some really interesting places.  We left Rome Friday morning and went to Herculaneum first.  Herculaneum is a town that was destroyed by lava when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D., so it's similar to Pompeii but is preserved much better.  The lava hardened into stone and buried the whole city until it was accidentally discovered in the early 18th century by people trying to build a well.  It's amazing that so many details, such as the paintings on the walls of the homes, have been preserved so well for almost 2000 years and it was really cool to see how the inhabitants of this town lived back then.  We had lunch in Pompeii but unfortunately didn't get to look around so hopefully I can go back sometime for a day trip.  Then we went to Salerno, which is right on the sea and surrounded by mountains.  I was actually surprised as we drove south from Rome how mountainous the region is, because the only mountains I think of when I think of Italy are the Alps up north.  The next day we went to Paestum, which was originally a Greek city built to honor Poseidon, the god of the sea.  It was eventually taken over by the Romans but three Greek temples still stand there today, so we saw the temples and took a tour of the museum there.  On Sunday we went to Sorrento, another town on the water, which was very charming.  They let us explore this town by ourselves for a couple hours so we basically just wandered the streets in the rain, going into any place that looked interesting.  Sorrento is famous for its limoncello, which is an Italian lemon liqueur drink traditionally served after a meal.  So naturally there are lemon trees all around Sorrento, which make it very picturesque.  Overall it was a great weekend!  I'm glad that for this trip they took us to smaller towns that I otherwise probably wouldn't have ever heard about or visited.  Traveling with a group of about 200 people is hard though, so I'm excited to start traveling with a small group of friends (starting this weekend with Milan).  My friends and I met some Italians while we were out over the weekend, which was one of my favorite parts of the trip because meeting the people definitely gives you insight into the culture of a country!

Here's an update on how the first week of classes went.  I switched my classes around a little so here's what I'm taking now:  Intro to Opera, Honors: Encountering Contemporary Europe, Cultural History: Foods and Wines of Italy, and Society in Literature.  I haven't had Foods and Wines yet, but the others seem like they'll be interesting classes, and the professors seem great too.  Two of my professors are Italian and two are Americans who now call Italy home, so they all have varied backgrounds which is nice.  Last Thursday night, with my Opera class, we got to go see an opera!  It was my first opera, and I was so excited, but since it was an American opera called "A View From the Bridge" it was in English, which just didn't seem as authentic since I was expecting it to be in Italian.  So hopefully the next time our professor gets us tickets they'll be for an Italian opera!  But it was still a great experience and the opera house here in Rome is beautiful!  I don't have much to say about my other classes yet, but I'll keep you updated if anything exciting happens.  

In case you're interested (but more because I'm so excited that I want to share with you!) these are the future trips I have planned so far:
January 28-31  Milan
February 26   day trip to Venice for Carnival, which is basically like Mardi Gras
March 4-13   GREECE!!!
April 1-3       Tuscany

There's just so much to see in Europe, it's hard to pick and choose where to go, so I have a lot more planning to do.  But I also want to be sure to spend enough time in Rome, since it is my home while I'm here and there are countless places to go in the city!

Sorry there aren't any pictures on this post, my laptop is acting up so I gave it to the IT guy here, but I don't have it back yet.  Hopefully later this week it will be fixed and I can add some!  Thanks for reading!

Ciao,
Allison